Tag: #lopcheung
Stuck on Sticky Rice (Gnaw Mai Fan)

Stuck on Sticky Rice (Gnaw Mai Fan)

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When the holidays roll around and the feasting begins, you can find me eyeing the array of side dishes on the table.  Yep, scoop me some sweet potatoes, pour on the creamed spinach, and pile high the mashed potatoes. While everyone oohs and ahs over the turkey, I’ll be laser focused on the sides, like the STUFFING.  I adore stuffing, especially my mom’s bread stuffing, but my second favorite is a Chinese rice dish.  It’s called Gnaw Mai Fan. Sounds delicious right? No? Also known as Sticky Rice Dressing, it is the Asian contribution to the Thanksgiving table.

You start with sweet (glutinous) rice, add fragrant shiitake mushrooms, sweet & salty Chinese sausage aka Lop Cheung, dried shrimp, and finish with a generous amount of green onions.  Sounds easy right? It is, but the hurdle is getting the ingredients, unless you have an Asian market nearby.

Primer for Sweet Rice Dressing

Moving from left to right; long-grain rice, green onions, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage, and dried shiitake or black mushrooms. Behind the mushrooms is the short grain sweet rice (or glutinous rice) and in the back are bottles of oyster sauce and soy sauce used to season the rice. Yep, two kinds of rice.  I mix the glutinous rice with regular long-grain rice to lighten the rice mixture.  All of these ingredients can be found in most Asian markets.  The dried shrimp and sausage can be found in the refrigerator case.  Sauces to use?  the following two are key.  I swear by Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce and Lee Kum Kee’s Premium Soy Sauce are my go-tos, but Pearl Ridge and the Korean brand Sempio 501 are good too.

Soak, Soak, Baby

Soak the dried mushrooms and shrimp in warm water for approximately 15 minutes or until soft.  Drain and reserve the soaking water from the mushrooms and shrimp. Wash your long grain rice and drain.  Add the glutinous rice and long grain to your rice cooker.  Yes, your rice cooker.  I have absolutely no idea how to cook rice in anything else but a rice cooker (use the measuring cups that come with your rice cooker).  Strain and add reserved liquid from mushrooms and shrimp to the pot, add chicken broth to make up the difference. Place Chinese sausage on top of the rice and turn on the rice cooker.

Prep the other ingredients while the rice is cooking.  Optional additions include ground seasoned pork, char siu (bbq pork), bacon, and roasted chestnuts.  It’s your rice dish, go crazy.  I usually add seasoned ground pork or chicken.

In a pickle, I have used Japanese short-grain or sushi rice in place of the glutinous and long grain rice combination.  Shhh, don’t tell my Mom!  My kid has made this for his Friendsgiving celebration to rave reviews.

This dressing works well as stuffing for turkey or chicken, use it just like any bread stuffing.  If served on the side, add the pan drippings to the rice for a flavor boost.

Garnish with cilantro and scallions.

And It’s Gluten Free!

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Gnaw Mai Fan-Chinese Sweet Rice Stuffing

A traditional Cantonese Rice dish to use in place of stuffing during Thanksgiving!
Course Main Course, One dish meals
Cuisine Asian
Keyword gnaw mai fan, Sweet Rice Stuffing
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes

Equipment

  • Rice Cooker

Ingredients

  • 2 cups long grain rice using the rice cooker mesuring cup
  • 2 cups sweet rice using the rice cooker measuring cup
  • 4 lop cheung steamed with rice, removed and diced
  • 1/2 cup char siu (bbq pork) Reduce lop cheung to 3 and substitute diced barbecue pork
  • 4 dried black mushrooms (shitake mushrooms) soaked in warm water until soft, diced, reserve soaking liquid (use 1-1.5 cups of water)
  • 1/4 cup small dried shrimp soaked in warm water with black mushrooms
  • 2 slices fresh ginger size of a quarter
  • 3-4 cups chicken stock you can use commercial low sodium chicken broth
  • 3 green onions chopped

Ground pork and marinade

  • 1/3 cup ground pork or chicken
  • 1 tsp each sherry, oyster sauce, soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • dash of salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper
  • 1 slice ginger

Seasonings

  • 1-2 Tbsp Soy Sauce Premium LKK Chinese Soy Sauce or Korean Soy Sauce (Sempio)
  • 1-2 Tbsp Oyster sauce Lee Kum Kee brand-Lady, boy in boat label

Garnish

  • Cilantro
  • Green onion

Instructions

  • Cook rice in rice cooker with reserved soaking liquid from mushrooms and shrimp and chicken broth.
  • Marinade ground pork for 10-15 minutes.
  • Heat pan, add 1 T oil, when hot, add ginger and fry 30 seconds, add drained dried shrimp and 1 t water, sauté 30 seconds then add ground pork, saute just until pork is no longer pink.
  • Add mushrooms and lop cheung. Sauté additional minute or two.
  • Add green onions, saute' another 30 seconds and remove from heat.
  • Pour rice into large mixing bowl. Fold in sautéed ingredients, mix soy sauce and oyster sauce together and add to rice. You will probably need more, just use a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce to oyster sauce.
  • Mix thoroughly.

Notes

Leftovers can be pressed and shaped into rice balls for a tasty portable snack-thumbs up from my kids!
Dad’s Fried Rice With a Little Tweak

Dad’s Fried Rice With a Little Tweak

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Having recently posted a fried rice recipe (Kim Chee Fried Rice-Koreatown), this comes a bit sooner than expected, but a couple of things prompted this post.  The rain is back with a vengeance so I have been holed up at home with Sammy.  The perfect time to scrounge around the fridge and use whatever we have for dinner.

I found leftover rice, onions, eggs, a bell pepper, and some Chinese sausage…yum, all the fixins for fried rice.  It’s easy, delish, down-home food. To top it off, my brother’s family spent the holidays in Hawaii and brought me back SPAM per my request.  I know you’re thinking-we have SPAM here, duh.  Yes, but Hawaii is the Spam capital of the world. We have regular, lite, and less salt, but head to any supermarket on the Islands and you will find a dizzying array of SPAM.

Welcome to Spam-a-lot

There’s Tocino SPAM, Portuguese Sausage SPAM, Garlic SPAM, Teriyaki SPAM, Black Pepper SPAM, Jalapeno SPAM, and the list’s keep going.  Who knew?  My niece grabbed a can of Tocino (Filipino) Spam which just happens to be my favorite. It’s sweet and salty and perfect for fried rice.  Fire up that wok, baby.

So this is a rift on my Dad’s Fried Rice.  He would always use Chinese BBQ Pork but sweet Chinese sausage and SPAM (yes!) are a good stand-in.  The beauty of fried rice is you can put whatever you like in and make it your own.  The foundation of course starts with rice, preferably day-old rice (drier), aromatics such as minced ginger, onions, scallions, seasonings-salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper, eggs, and some sort of protein bbq pork, spam, bacon, shrimp, your choice.  My Dad always added peas and shredded lettuce in his for color and probably to sneak some vegetables in.  Bell peppers, leeks, diced carrots are also great additions.

Go crazy and make your own signature fried rice, the sky’s (and what’s in your fridge) the limit.

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Dad’s Fried Rice Gets an Island Makeover

A delicious island version of fried rice, chinese sausage and Spam, proteins contributing flavor and texture!
Course dinner, lunch, One dish meals, Side Dish
Cuisine Asian-American
Keyword downhome, fried rice, homemade, lop cheung, rice, spam
Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cups cooked day old rice long grain preferred, but short grain will work
  • 1 T vegetable oil
  • 1/2 onion finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup diced red or green bell pepper*
  • 1/2 cup diced carrot*
  • 2-3 slices fresh ginger minced, 1 clove garlic minced (optional)
  • 1/2 cup diced Chinese bbq pork or SPAM
  • 1 Chinese sausage lop cheung and 2 slices of spam, diced
  • 2 eggs slightly scrambled
  • 1/2 cup green peas
  • 1-2 green onions coarsely minced
  • 1/2 cup shredded lettuce iceberg or romaine

Seasonings

  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 T oyster sauce
  • 1/4 t sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • white pepper
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil optional

Instructions

  • Heat a large saute' pan or wok and add the 1 T of oil to pan. Add onions, bell pepper (and any raw vegetable you like such as diced carrots or bell peppers) to the pan.
  • Saute' until vegetables are soft approximately 5 minutes. Add Chinese sausage and SPAM and continue to saute until sausage is heated through and SPAM is brown and with crispy edges.. Remove from pan to bowl and reserve.
  • To the same pan add 1 T oil. When shimmering add ginger and garlic (optional) and saute' until fragrant (15-30 seconds)
  • Add rice to pan, breaking up the clumps as you stir fry the rice and ginger. When the rice is coated with the oil, move rice to the perimeter of pan creating a well in the center. Pour eggs into center of pan and scramble. As soon as the egg is slightly set mix into rice, do not overcook the egg.
  • Toss vegetable mixture back into the pan along with the peas. Stir to incorporate and heat through.
  • Season with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil is using, and pepper. Taste, use salt if necessary.
  • Just before removing from pan add shredded lettuce and green onions
  • Garnish with green onions or cilantro if desired.
  • Serve immediately.